Linda Bethea

Movie tie-ins -- Builds brand recognition? Keeps the brand fresh? Or just for fun? Kraft Heinz, amongst many others, is jumping on the Marvel Entertainment Deadpool and Wolverine hype wagon as they try to show they can still generate $1B+ in movie ticket sales. Will it affect sales of ketchup and mustard in any significant way? What happens to all the promotional tie-in packaging once the summer movie season ends? Or will it just get people like me to write about it? #ecommerce #movietieins #customerexperience #zeitgeist

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Great and provocative read on Liquid Deaths’s success story. So many insights and examples which are relevant for FMCG challenger brands as well. Mark Ritson claims that “… if you step back and look at the original ‘four Ps’, it is almost impossible not to acknowledge that while the promotional P has its place, the product P is invariably the most important tactical consideration. Shitty marketing can surely kill a great product, but without a successful, product even the best marketing does little other than speed its own demise.” And I fully agree (see my earlier post for details) - so if you’re not yet following Mark, do it asap. It’s worth it (and entertaining). #challengerbrands #productlaunches #offlineretail

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A really interesting case history on #brandstrategy. ““[Liquid Death] sees itself as a media company first and a product second,” observed Young. “The company’s CEO has said in multiple interviews that you can’t ‘own’ an ingredient like canned water, but it could own a unique brand, wrapped in a compelling package, with a bold point-of-view that speaks to a niche audience.” If this can not only be theorized but also successfully executed for a product most people would see as a commodity, how much more true this statement should be for categories with higher intangible value! #brandmanagement #branding #marketingstrategy https://lnkd.in/eaB8mMmw

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In today’s installation of how to walk the bold advertising talk that for so many is just talk, I give you the new campaign from Impossible Foods and Erich and Kallman. And it’s bold in approach and execution. Its point of view (from my point of view) is a big, bold step away from the usual plants are good/meat is bad eco-rhetoric of veggie burgers. For Impossible, it’s not that plants are as good as meat. It's not that plants are better than meat. It's that plants ARE meat. Now that's bold statement. It goes again everything we’ve ever been taught to be true about taxonomy, starting with when King Philip Came Over From Germany Saturday. And it’s not just the traditional advertising that reflects their strategy. Impossible has adopted meat culture in all of its carnivorous excess. The redesign sports the reds, yellows and whites of McD’s, BK, and Wendy’s, with nary a whimper of tree-hugging eco green or faux-organic flowing type. They’re putting on a hot dog eating contest. They converted a cattle ranch into a plant meat ranch. They are doing meat stuff. It's smart. And It’s more than bold marketing, it’s bold branding. Which seems appropriate, since meat is where the term branding comes from in the first place. https://lnkd.in/ezuQyyrd

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As the economy stirs back to life here are my thoughts on what it means for drinks brands in my latest column for Global Drink Intel magazine. Time for brands to build optimism! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/epFsvsZQ

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There's a lot of brands getting consumer and category insight and brand positioning wrong in sustainable foods, which Zoran Svetlicic and I spent the first 10 issues of UNSTUCK writing about. So for our 11th piece, we wanted to shine the light on those getting it right (of which there aren't many, but that's exactly why we're here). Read on and learn how OATSIDE, The Tofoo Co and TiNDLE Foods are building brand and category value to take sustainable foods mainstream. #altprotein #sustainability #marketing #branding #UNSTUCK https://lnkd.in/giFPFm8E

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File under “how the sausage is made.” Had a really fun time chatting with Brand New's The Follow-up podcast on the context and potential design directions for NYBG's recent rebrand. #branding #brandstrategy #design #marketing #nybg #science #culture

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I believe one of the most incredible thinkers in #B2Bmarketing today is Jann Martin Schwarz. There are writers who are much more than the stories they tell. These stylists deliver more than anyone else. Nabokov, Kafka, Elliot. Today I believe James Parker and his new book “Odes to Being Alive” is the greatest contemporary example. Jann shares something with them – it’s not simply the content of his argument that makes engaging with Jann so valuable. This is important because he’s famous for taking “contrarian” points of view on modern marketing challenges. He's pioneering thinking during his leadership of The B2B Institute, collaborating with brilliant thinkers like Mark Ritson, Roger Martin, and Les Binet around topics like customer promise, category entry points, etc. He’s challenged widely held assumptions around hyper-targeting and other supposed truisms of our industry. While there are incredible practical insights in this work (and I’d recommend heading to Linkedin's B2B Institute without hesitation), the way Jann thinks and considers our area of the marketing ecosystem is even more important than the content of his thinking. Finding inspiration in how Jann thinks will help ALL of your work – beyond the specifics of any given topic. I was lucky enough to spend a moment with him at The Saturnalia Chateau, where he shared incredible insights about the buying committee and the complexity of how groups make decisions. A few friends who might enjoy: Dan Rosenberg, Toni Clayton-Hine, Jessica Deckinger, Amanda St L Jobbins, Christopher Burns, Dan Petrossi, Jonah Goodhart, Patrick Reynolds, Noah Brier, Natalie Ely, Jeremy Botwinick, Hannah Budreski, Anna Griffin, Tisha Hulburd, Christi Moot, and Jeff Brooks #B2B #buyingcommittee #marketingstrategy

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Getting "obsessed" with consumers can be a smart move for brands that can help increase engagement and loyalty. Ben Osborne of Creative Bloq writes, "We don’t invent brands; we find them – more archaeology than alchemy. We believe that inherent in every brand or company is something extraordinary and unique, a truth, worth uncovering." Creative branding is all about one thing, after all: the consumer. Why are we being creative? Why are we innovating? It's all for the consumer — to capture their engagement and loyalty. In obsessing over the consumer by learning from our metrics, consistently following up post-sale or interaction, and taking their feedback and interests as seriously as possible, we're bound to find that connection and loyalty. #ConsumerObsession #CreativeBranding #Marketing #Advertising

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One significant challenge for those businesses that aim to get heard and to get their message across is today's diversified and non transparent media landscape. The total channel list for how to gain reach among people is longer than ever. The complexity in metrics and KPIs is worse than ever. The transparency is sometimes non existent. This means that advertisers lack clarity into what makes their buying a success. Hand on heart out there - who claim 100% certainty that your resources are allocated in the best way? No wonder if we see more and more CFO's shaking their heads to this madness. But... this is not your business challenge. It is a complex industry and big media owner challenge. So do not put the blame on your CMO. The challenges are multiple:  - Which channels to ultimately choose based on my objective and target audience? And what does success look like by channel? - What is the right channel mix to maximise reach and drive the right leads? - How to understand the value of impressions versus true reach. Do impressions ever represent those that have actually viewed and taken in the message of the ad? - The many measures and approaches make transparency in internal reporting pretty impossible. The situation is not improving but the evolution of digital and online media may mean that it could get even get worse. Uplifting right? A challenge indeed! I recently completed the Cross Media Management Certification Course by the Swedish advertising association Sveriges Annonsörer Now, as one of the 546 officially certified marketers in Sweden, I look forward to tackle these challenges head-on. Thank you Peter Mackhé for a great and thought provoking course! And also Hanna Riberdahl and all others at Sveriges annonsörer for the excellence you deliver!

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Episode 7 of the One Question, One Minute Videocast for Time Strapped Innovation & Insight Leaders with Cherie Leonard from Colgate-Palmolive on human centricity.   My key takeaways from my time with Cherie were: 1) A reminder that as marketers and insights professionals, we need to pull ourselves away from thinking about people as consumers, shoppers, or media targets, and instead as human beings with priorities, hopes, and dreams. 2) Adopting a human-centric mindset focused on people as human beings not only is the right thing to do not to objectify “our consumers”, but it provides the appropriate context for important innovation, communication, and renovation work. It also helps improve portfolio management by understanding category trade-offs, 3) Human centricity puts a face to the data for not just insights professionals, but for marketers, sales, R&D, as well as supply chain and finance.   What are your thoughts on Cherie’s POV on the intersection of behavior change and insights organization transformation? Thank you Cherie for being my 7th guest on the One Question, One Minute Videocast for Time Strapped Innovation & Insight Leaders and to see the previous guests, see the comments below. #mrx #insights #innovation #podcast #oneminute #onequestion #consumerempathy #humancentricity *** Links to the previous episodes, Oksana Sobol from Clorox and Matt Plugues from Kenvue, Michelle Gibb from Mondelez, Jamilla Jonny from L’Oreal, Royce Yahya, and Simon Pollock from Kellanova are in the comments below.

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Excited to share my latest article published by Fast Company As CMO tenures shrink and their role becomes increasingly performance-driven due to shareholder pressure, brands risk losing their ability to create meaningful change in the world—which is bad for everyone. Check it out and let's discuss! https://lnkd.in/gqd5mW-i #Marketing #CMO #BusinessStrategy #FastCompany

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POSSIBLE marketing conference arrived in Miami two weeks ago, and it was just really...fun. Hot topics included cookie deprecation, the role AI will have in our industry, and what personalization really means for customers. Highlights included conversations where humanity and creating real connections were hero-ed in compelling ways. So many golden nuggets to mine - some favorites worth sharing here: From Gary Vaynerchuk at VaynerX: ⭐️ Content should be driven by the question: “What makes people feel?”  ⭐️ Opening line is vital: be obsessed with the first second of content. From Patrick O'Keefe at E.L.F. BEAUTY: ⭐️ Think about/find the community that isn’t being talked to. Liquid Death partnership changed conversation and reached a new audience. Data couldn’t have told them to make Corpse Paint. But data could tell them there are consumers in Goth world. Listen and lean in. Be brave. From Tracy-Ann (Goodwin) Lim at JPMorgan Chase & Co.: ⭐️ Don’t just call customers on their birthday: communicate meaningfully over time.  ⭐️ Marry how technology makes things easier with human touch. From Molly Battin at The Home Depot: ⭐️ The Home Depot’s brand is our people. Empower associates so they understand values and culture. Empower them to make personal connections. That’s where you unlock customer loyalty—because of trust created. From David Shing at Shingy: ⭐️ People today identify as many different things. We need new archetypes to capture multi-hyphenates. ⭐️ Massive mistake not to have good first-party data. Take, but give something back that celebrates the gift of data. Special shout out to Monica Nguyen who finds inspiration in everything, and was such a great partner to sit in on these talks with. Thanks to the team at POSSIBLE for an amazing event!

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Yes, I've started adding the "award-winning" descriptor to every relevant mention of this amazing marketing team and yours truly. You know that feeling when you've just survived production hell, you step back and take in the totality of what you all have conceived and managed to bring to life. You think, "It's done. And it's good!" Then you see the results and think "It worked!" Your colleagues agree, and usually, that's enough to carry the momentum into the next thing. And the next thing. And so on. Therein lies the challenge for high-performance teams. We yearn for the recognition, but the production cycle keeps turning. So I'm incredibly grateful to Evi Loveres--truly one of the most talented creative professionals in the industry--for breaking the cycle and championing this opportunity. In case you don't feel like clicking the link, Fictiv's annual State of Manufacturing report is my favorite campaign (and a beast of a project.) "State of Manufacturing is an in-depth annual report published by Fictiv to demonstrate its leadership and expertise in the manufacturing industry. Last year's report was generated by surveying over 240 leaders in engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, and product development to identify developing trends and gather key insights. These insights were packaged as a landing page, ebook/printed piece and was supported with an integrated campaign consisting of email, webinar, live panel discussion at a trade show, PR, and various social media promotions." Go ahead and click that link for a selection of creative assets developed for this comprehensive campaign. Results (June 2023 - April 2024) - Potential reach: 209.4M - 688 backlinks from 46 referring domains - 7K website users (4.7K new) - 600+ e-book downloads - 375 webinar registrants This campaign would not have been possible without my award-winning 😉 colleagues: Christine Evans, Michael Gorman, Evi Loveres, Varun Mehta, John Honey, Jenn Miller, Kaitlyn Silva 🏆

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My LinkedIn feed often features posts from marketing professionals expressing frustration with executive teams or CEOs who seem to misunderstand the role of marketing. These leaders may question the importance of branding or the impact of marketing on the sales funnel, and while this is a common occurrence, let's face it, it's also very disheartening. Marketing is a complex discipline, blending art and science. Its form and function can vary significantly between organizations, depending on their evolution, goals, and strategies. Sometimes, marketers can change perceptions within their company, but in other cases, these "misunderstandings" are deeply ingrained in the company culture, leaving marketers with difficult choices. However, there are companies whose leadership teams genuinely understand and embrace marketing - even when they don't get it themselves - they are willing to listen. 🎧 A recent episode of The Current Podcast reminded me of this, featuring Kory Marchisotto, Chief Marketing Officer for E.L.F. BEAUTY. Marchisotto's discussion about branding, identity, and the E.L.F. community showcased how these elements have helped drive their remarkable growth, and strengthened them. Her commitment to E.L.F. (or rather, the "citizens" of E.L.F.) is inspiring. Every company should aspire to have someone like Kory at the helm. Marketing isn't just about being clever with a whiteboard or having good ideas; it's about being a steward of something larger than oneself. As Marchisotto puts it, it's "the ethos (of the brand) that powers the purpose that powers the people, that powers the performance." E.L.F.'s performance, particularly in sales, has been explosive 🚀. My favorite moment from the episode was this: "When you're a brand of the people, by the people, for the people, you have to create with the people. This is their brand, not mine. I'm here to steward it for them. I'm here to shape it with them. So the only way I can do that is by listening very intently. And a lot of people in my position rely on reports. I've seen reports. I don't want to have a relationship with reports. I want to have a relationship with people. So as the CMO of the company, I'm probably more connected to our audience than anybody in our company. And the reason I do that is to make sure that they're with me in every room I go into, whether its the boardroom, or the C Suite, or every meeting, I am there as a representative of them." I have to say how refreshing and affirming it is to know that some marketing leaders and leadership teams are willing to listen and put others first. And maybe admit what they don't know. As they listen, they learn to recognize that it's not about them, but about their citizens and how the brand listens to them. Checkout the episode/series hosted by Damian Fowler and Ilyse Liffreing - > https://lnkd.in/gEirE5iY #marketing #leadership #community #branding #strategy

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Happy to share our latest Gen Alpha Study capturing the media use and habits of 3000 US Kids and their Families. Check out why YouTube is #1, how YouTube Shorts is gaining popularity against TikTok and any more insights. Download now! URL - https://lnkd.in/eDvUskpc #toys #genalpha #digitalmarketing

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Have you seen the new Heinz's Pickle Ketchup Campaign? I haven’t tried it yet but I do love the combination of pickles and ketchup so I’ll probably be into it. Plus it seems like pickle flavor is sneaking into everything! #Pickles2024 Let’s breakdown the campaign and how these principles can apply to other food brands. 🎯 Core Campaign Concept. The entire campaign revolves around the concept of “You Can Already Taste It”. This comes through in their billboards, influencer campaign, paid social, their hero campaign video and the UGC campaign asking for “pre-reviews”. The overall idea that you don’t have to try it to imagine what it would taste like. 🍭 Multi-channel Campaign. An omnichannel marketing strategy leveraging multiple touchpoints with consistent branding leads to higher brand awareness, recall, customer retention, and ultimately increased sales. 🎨Tailored Creative Per Channel. They have a highly visual, punchy billboard in high traffic locations. A more authentic but still produced person on the street interview style video that plays well on YouTube. And leveraging creators on IG and TikTok. All three of these are telling the same stories in different ways that play better based on the placements. 📩 Capturing First Party Data. This is a hugely critical piece that a lot of brands who don’t sell DTC miss. Building a database of first party data dramatically increases the performance of your paid campaigns, gives you a direct line to your consumers and helps to future proof your business as privacy concerns continue to push us to a cookie-less world. Their giveaway where consumers submit pre-reviews (what they think the product will taste like) for a chance to win a year’s supply of the product is a great way to incentivize and capture this data. By adopting these tactics and principles, other food brands can effectively drive consumer engagement and boost in-store sales. #FoodMarketing

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